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Raimundo Fernández-Cuesta | |
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| Secretary-General ofFET y de las JONS | |
| In office 4 December 1937 – 9 August 1939 | |
| Minister of Agriculture | |
| President of the Council of State | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 5 October 1896 Madrid, Spain |
| Died | July 9, 1992(1992-07-09) (aged 95) Madrid, Spain |
| Political party | FET y de las JONS |
| Alma mater | Complutense University of Madrid |
Raimundo Fernández-Cuesta y Merelo (5 October 1896,Madrid – 9 July 1992, Madrid) was a leadingSpanish politician with both theFalange and its successor movement theSpanish Traditionalist Phalanx of the Assemblies of National-Syndicalist Offensive.
A native of Madrid, Fernández-Cuesta studied at thelocal university, where he gained a law degree.[1] He was a close friend ofJosé Antonio Primo de Rivera from childhood.[1]
An early member of the Falange, which he joined in 1933, he served as the movement's first secretary and garnered a reputation as one of the new group's most effective public speakers.[1] He was a candidate for the Falange at the1936 election, although he was not elected.[1]
Fernández-Cuesta was imprisoned upon the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War by Republicans and, although he escaped twice, was recaptured on both occasions.[1] He was released from captivity in October 1937 when he was involved in a prisoner swap withJustino de Azcárate, who was held by the Nationalists.[1] Soon after his release he was appointed Secretary general of the unified Falangist-Carlist movement although he did not prove talented as a political organiser and was replaced in the role byAgustín Muñoz Grandes in 1939.[1] His appointment as leader was largely intended to keep onside Falangists who feared the influence of both the Army and monarchism on Franco, but the role proved to have little power since real influence over Franco was instead to lie withRamón Serrano Súñer.[2]
Within this earlyBurgos-based government ofFrancisco Franco, he also fulfilled the role of Agriculture Minister.[3] This too however proved to be largely a failed endeavour.[1]
Such was the influence of Súñer that, after theSpanish Civil War, he engineered the effective exile of his rival Fernández-Cuesta, who was appointed Spanish ambassador first toBrazil (1940–1942) and then toItaly (1942–1945).[4] Alongside this, Fernández-Cuesta's reputation was damaged by his failure in the Agriculture portfolio, with Spain facing famine in the 1940s largely as a consequence of the failed policies he had previously adopted in the role.[5] Nevertheless, his personal loyalty to Franco was never less than absolute, a fact that ensured he would never be fully excluded from positions of influence.[1]
Fernández-Cuesta was effectively absent from the frontline of Spanish politics until 1945 when he was appointed Minister of Justice.[6] As part of his remit he oversaw a liberalisation of Spain's treatment of dissidents designed to win the regime support fromNATO, including announcing in December 1949 plans to release 13,000 political prisoners (although in fact only 3,000 were ultimately released under the scheme).[7] He was moved in 1951 to the post of General Secretary of the Movement and oversaw a return to much more draconian ways as unrest over rising unemployment repression under Fernández-Cuesta's direction.[8] He lost this position in early 1956 after Franco came under pressure by leading figures in the Army to remove him following a riot at theUniversity of Madrid in which it was said that the FalangistFrente de Juventudes had acted too heavy-handedly in battling students seeking to organise their own syndicate outside of the official government body.[9] His position was however filled by his allyJosé Luis de Arrese as Franco continued to seek a balance between the different wings of his movement within the cabinet.[10]
Effectively sidelined, Fernández-Cuesta became loosely associated with extreme rightists such as GeneralIniesta Cano andBlas Piñar.[10] Removed from the political front-line once again, he nonetheless remained a member of theCortes Españolas he became recognised as one of the most hard-line and reactionary of the old clique of Franco loyalists who continued to occupy the back benches of the parliament.[11] He was especially critical of the gradual liberalisation that began to creep in during the early 1970s as an increasingly frail Franco began to exercise less day to day power.[11]
After Franco's death he re-founded theFalange Española de las JONS, a nostalgic group that failed to make any headway in democratic Spain.[12] Despite leading his own party he was allowed to simultaneously hold membership of Blas Piñar'sFuerza Nueva, with the two parties running a joint campaign in the1977 election. The groups managed only 0.21% of the vote however.[11]
Fernández-Cuesta retired from politics in February 1983, withDiego Márquez Horrillo succeeding him as Falange Española de las JONS leader.[11] He published his memoirs,Testimonio, Recuerdos y Reflexiones, in 1985.[11]
| Preceded by new post | General Secretary of the Movement 1938-1939 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | General Secretary of the Movement 1948-1956 | Succeeded by |
